6 JOURNAL OF THE 



Leii-islatiire took no action in the matter, however, until two 

 years hiter, wlien the proposition was renewed. Tlie survey was 

 authorized by act of the General iVssembly, ratified December 31st, 

 1823. This act made it the duty of the "Board of Agriculture 

 of North Carolina to employ some person of (K)mpetent skill 

 and science to commence and carry on a geological and miner- 

 aloiiical survey of the various re^^ions of this State.'^ 



Denison Olmsted (at that time Professor of Cheniistry, Geol- 

 ogy and Mineralogy in the University of N. C.) was appointed 

 by the Board of Agriculture to make the survey, and prosecuted 

 the work during the University vacations* of the years 1824 

 and 1825. In the latter part of 1825, Olmsted resiguf^d (to 

 accept a professorship at Yale College), and was succeeded by 

 Elisha Mitchell, both in the professorship in the University and 

 as geologist of the survey. The work of the survey was prose- 

 cuted by Professor Mitchell during the University vacations, 

 beginning late in 1825 and continuing through 1828. The only 

 assistant employed in the work of the surve\' was Charles E. 

 Rothe, a "miner and mineralogist from Saxony,'^ engaged for a 

 short time by Professor Olmsted in 1825 to make an examina- 

 tion of portions of the "great slaty formation '' (Huronian of 

 Kerr) which crosses the State. 



The general purposes of the survey appear to have been, on 

 the part of Professor Olmsted (who proposed it) and Professor 

 Mitchell, the opportunity to become acquainted with the geology 

 and mineralogy of the State, and to procure specimens of rocks 

 and minerals illustrative of the same, and, on the part of the 

 State, the discovery of mineral de[)osits of value within the State, 

 and the publication of reports, in which these deposits should be 

 desci-ibed and the value and uses of the minerals made known to 

 the people. 



The survey was sustained by an annual appropriation of two 

 hundred and fifty dollars ($250), contiiuied for five years. This 

 amount was each year paid over to the geologist, and out of it 



*AmountiDj^ to six weeks during the summer and four weeks during the winter. 



